Category Archives: People

Blomberg on Wright on justification

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I’ve been posting, off and on, on Tom Wright’s Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision.  Haven’t finished yet.  Reviews have starting appearing, and I was particularly interested to read that of Craig Blomberg, Distinguished Professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary.  Blomberg writes:

Throughout his prolific writing career, Wright has increasingly centered his attention on the breadth of the gospel message being much more than how an individual attains salvation, defined as life in heaven after death.…

Divine Fore-ordination

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According to Eph 1:11, God ‘works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will’. Nothing comes to pass that has not been fore-ordained by God. The fall of the sparrow, the throw of the dice, and the number of the very hairs on our heads lie under his fore-ordination. So do the free actions of men and women Phil 2:13. Even the sinful actions of men lie within God’s will and purpose, Acts 2:23.…

The triumph of the Cross

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The New Testament (writes John Stott) sounds a note of victory that is sadly muted in many parts of the church today.  The victory is God’s and he has achieved it through Jesus Christ; more specifically, through the cross of Christ (1 Cor 15:57; 2 Cor 2:14; Col 2:15; Rom 8:37; Rev 3:21; 5:5; 12:11).

What seemed like the defeat of goodness by evil was, in fact, the defeat of evil by goodness.  The victim is the victor. …

Images of salvation

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We have been considering four of the principal New Testament images of salvation – propitiation, redemption, justification and reconciliation.  These are derived from the shrine, the market, the lawcourt and the home respectively.  Because they draw on different life situations, they cannot be perfectly integrated with one another.

However, certain themes emerge:-

1.  Each highlights a different aspect of human need – wrath, captivity, guilt and alienation respectively.

2.  All emphasise God’s saving initiative.  He propitiated his own wrath, redeemed us from our bondage, declared us righteous, and reconciled us to himself. …

Reconciliation

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One of several images of salvation used in Scripture is that of reconciliation.

In this image, we leave the temple precincts, slave-markets and lawcourts, and come home to our family and friends.

Reconciliation is the answer to alienation, and to all who feel alienated reconciliation sounds like the good news that it is.

Reconciliation begins with a restored relationship with God, Rom 5:9-11 (note the parallel in this passage between reconciliation and justification).  The idea is closely linked with those of ‘adoption’ (Jn 1:12f; 1 Jn 3:1-10) and ‘access’ (Rom 5:1f; Eph 2:17f; 1 Pet 3:18; Heb 10:19-22).…

Redemption

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Whereas the imagery of propitiation is that of the temple court, the imagery of redemption is that of the market-place. The basic meaning of ‘to redeem’ is to buy or buy back, whether as a purchase or as a ransom. Strongly implied is the plight from which we needed to be ransomed.…

Propitiation

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How did the cross of Christ achieve its purpose?  In what ways did his death and resurrection usher in ‘the day of salvation’ (2 Cor 6:2)?

Just as several pictures, or metaphors, are needed to fill out the meaning of ‘church’ (bride, temple, household, and so on), so several are required to illustrate the salvation that Christ achieved.  Chief among these are the terms ‘propitiation’, ‘redemption’, ‘justification’, and ‘reconciliation’.  It is important to realise that these images are complementary to one another, for underlying them all is ‘the truth that God in Christ has borne our sin and died our death to set us free from sin’. …

Sir Marcus Loane, 14th October 1911 – 14th April 2009

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Sir Marcus Loane died a few days ago at the age of 97.

He was vice-principal and then principal of Moore Theological College.  In 1966 he became Australia’s first native-born Archbishop and in 1978 became Primate of Australia.

I have a high regard for Marcus Loane’s writings, particularly the sets of short biographies that were first published up to 60 years ago.  He was writing winningly about the English Reformers, Puritans and evangelical leaders at a time when few others seemed aware of their importance and value.…

Preachers and their preaching – D.M. Lloyd-Jones

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Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was one of the most influential British preachers of the 20th century.  His impact on the revival of reformed evangelicalism was incalculable.  He stood firmly within the Puritan tradition: he modelled in his preaching both their painstaking analytical expository method and also shared their commitment to what might be called ‘experientialism’ – a passionate desire that through preaching men and women might be brought into vital contact with the living God.

The centrality of preaching

At the beginning of Preachers and Preaching Lloyd-Jones stated his conviction that preaching was the greatest need both of the church and the world:

‘To me the work of preaching is the highest and the greatest and the most glorious calling to which anyone can ever be called.

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The self-substitution of God

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How can we, who are so deeply unholy and unrighteous, be reconciled with God, who is gloriously holy and righteous?  How can God express simultaneously his holiness in judgment and his love in pardon?

The astonishing, yet scriptural, answer, is, in the words of Cranfield, that

‘God, because in his mercy he willed to forgive sinful men, and, being truly merciful, willed to forgive them righteously, that is, without in any way condoning their sin, purposed to direct against his own very self in the person of his Son the full weight of that righteous wrath which they deserved.’

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